


My Best Friend Is a Go-Go Boy

by withhishands



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-26
Updated: 2014-04-26
Packaged: 2018-01-20 21:18:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1526135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/withhishands/pseuds/withhishands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mandy and Svetlana in college together. There's miscommunication and pining and Ian and Mickey arguing over dumb shit that Mandy doesn't have time for.</p>
            </blockquote>





	My Best Friend Is a Go-Go Boy

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this very quickly and impulsively. I've never written anything from Mandy's point of view before. I don't have her voice down yet, so I apologize for out of characterness. 
> 
> I don't have any backstory ready for this, so lets just say that somehow Mandy got a full-ride to college. And somehow Ian ended up still being a go-go boy despite the entire Svetlana storyline not happening to him and Mickey.
> 
> **I briefly mention female genital mutation in the context of a school project. It's not graphic.**

Mandy’s phone won’t stop buzzing. She’s going to kill Ian. And probably Mickey. Her professor keeps looking in her direction because the buzzing is still noisy and it just won’t stop. Mandy digs through her purse for it and sets it on her thigh. The buzzing is nearly inaudible against her jeans. She tries listening to the lecture because Mandy’s on a scholarship and her professor talks so fucking fast. Except the vibrating is more annoying against her leg. Mandy lets a breath out of her nose quickly, sets her jaw, and unlocks her phone. Scrolling through Ian’s messages, she can’t keep up with whatever he’s talking about. Something about thermostats and dishes and smirking. 

Mandy texts him back quickly, _stop texting me i’m in class_ , and goes back to the lecture. 

They break up into their groups for the last fifteen minutes of class to discuss their projects. Mandy stays quiet for the meeting because it’s still weird around Svetlana. She wonders when it’ll stop being weird. Mandy all but rushes out of the classroom and heads to the bus stop. She’s not ready to try small talk with her yet. 

She skypes Ian later that night. 

“Hey,” Ian says warmly, smiling through Mandy’s laptop screen. “Sorry about earlier.”

Mandy shrugs. She maximizes her browser in front of Ian’s face, full of tabs of research for the gender studies group project. 

“Mickey’s driving me nuts,” Ian says. 

“What else is new?” Mandy mumbles. “You two fight all the time.”

“We don’t,” Ian says, even though, yes, they do fight all the time. “He’s just getting on my case all the time about everything. I sleep in too late and he’s basically calling the cops. I feel like I’m on house-arrest.”

“You don’t know what house-arrest feels like,” Mandy points out. 

“Fiona was on house-arrest.”

“You are not Fiona,” Mandy says.

“Anyway,” Ian says pointedly. “He’s driving me nuts.”

Mandy gets tired of looking at the pages and pages of journal articles. She swore to herself that she would at least get her bibliography finalized tonight, but the pages are making her head hurt. She flips back over to Ian. 

“Hang on, I need to find a sweater. _It’s so fucking cold in here_ ,” Ian says, emphasizing the last part for Mickey, Mandy assumes. They fight over ridiculous shit. 

“Lana still won’t look at me,” Mandy says, changing the topic from whatever they’re going through. “Like, she won’t even say my name in our meetings.”

“Jesus,” Ian says, coming back into view, wearing a ridiculous winter coat. No way in hell is Mandy getting involved in their argument. “You aren’t that bad of a kisser.”

“Fuck you. I’m a great kisser,” Mandy says, rolling her eyes.

“Then what happened?”

Ian knows what happened. Mandy got all starry-eyed over the hot Russian girl in her sociology class and asked her out on a date and kissed her and. And nothing. Svetlana got distant and stopped texting Mandy and eventually said, “I can’t be more than friend to you.”

Mandy sighs and says, “I don’t know what happened.”

She wants to get over it, get over her. The constantly changing color of her hair. The way she frowns when she doesn’t understand a word. Lana’s a biology major, working on her med school applications, and Mandy definitely has a type: intimidatingly smart. The thing is, she got over Lip because he treated her like shit. The same method won’t work for getting over Svetlana. 

Mandy throws herself into schoolwork. She gets ahead in her classes and manages to start watching the third season of Dexter with Ian. Or, not really with Ian, but watching it simultaneously and gchatting the entire time. She finishes getting the research done for her part of the project and writes her portion of the paper. As the deadline approaches, her groupmates email Mandy their portions and Mandy edits the paper down, adds in citations, and makes the paper seems less disjointed. She tries not to be too impressed with how well-written Lana’s section is, but the thoughts cross her mind more than once. 

On the day of their presentation, Mandy’s in class first. She sets up the computer in the front of the classroom and gets their presentation up on the projector. Mandy’s the first presenter in the group, anyway. Their topic is modern female genital mutilation. The focus isn’t the specifics of the process, rather communities around the world that still practice it. The last presentation focuses on efforts to stop FGM. Mandy’s is first and it’s just an introduction to what FGM is. 

When it’s Lana’s turn to go, Mandy smiles softly at her and says, “Good luck.” Lana smiles back at her and Mandy’s stomach flips. Yeah, not over her.

The presentation goes by without a hitch. Their professor is big on immediate feedback, so she pulls the group into the hallway. She says if their paper is as good as their presentation was, then they can expect an A. She goes back inside and Mandy immediately says, “We’re celebrating, right? Party at my apartment.”

Mandy lives in a nice apartment. She’s subletting from a girl who’s in a study abroad for a year and only charges Mandy four hundred dollars for her room. She has one roommate, Lin’cal. Mandy likes her even though they don’t have anything in common. She’s twenty-one and offers to go buy some alcohol. 

She snaps Ian pictures all night of her terrible attempts at making mixed drinks and a few sly pictures of Lana throwing drinks back with her friends. Ian sends her back a picture of Mickey’s unclothed torso with the caption _she’s cute_. Mandy immediately snaps him a picture of herself, frowning, with the caption _don’t send me pics of my brother_. She shoves her phone in her pocket. 

“Hi,” Lana says, joining Mandy in the kitchen and leaning against the counter next to her. She sways a little and takes a sip of her drink. “I like your apartment. Very tall.” She points to the vaulted ceilings, loses her balance, and slides against the counter. Mandy doesn’t reach for her because she doesn’t want to make her uncomfortable. Lana sorts herself out, stands up again, and laughs. 

“You’re drunk,” Mandy comments.

Lana hums and takes another sip from her drink. “Not drunk,” she says. “Russians don’t get drunk.”

Mandy laughs at that. She can see them being actual friends, like they had been briefly before Mandy asked her out. She can totally do just friends. 

“You’re beautiful,” Lana says and-

“What?” 

One of Lana’s friends comes over and drags her back to their group on the other side of Mandy’s living room. Mandy doesn’t get the chance to talk to her for the rest of the night. 

Mandy skypes Ian the next morning. 

“You look rough,” Ian says when the video feeds load. 

“Thanks, asshole,” she mumbles. She pulls her legs up to her chest and rests her head on her knees. “She called me beautiful last night.”

“Svetlana?”

“Yeah,” Mandy says. “She was drunk and she called me beautiful and then her friends dragged her away from me.”

“Have you ever dated a girl from school?” Ian asks. 

“Dated,” Mandy repeats, scrunching her face. Crudely, she puts a vee up to her mouth.

“Ew,” Ian says. “Okay, you've fucked a girl from school?”

“Yeah.”

“Did everyone know about it, like are you openly bisexual?”

“Yeah, why? Do you think she won’t date me because I like guys, too?” Mandy asks. She’s met people who have an issue with her liking men and women, but it never crossed her mind that Lana might mind. 

“Maybe, but listen, what if she’s not out? Dating you, openly into two sexes, is a pretty easy way to out yourself. Maybe she’s not ready to be out.”

Mandy hadn’t considered either of those possibilities before. Now her head is spinning with them. Not that it matters. Because Svetlana was clear when she said she wanted to just be friends. Mandy won’t pressure her into talking about it. 

She gives Lana a friendly smile in class the following week and leaves it at that. 

After class, Mandy starts her walk to the bus stop. Lana catches up to her, falling into stride with Mandy. 

“Can we talk?” she asks. They step off of the busy sidewalk and stand near the Engineering Sciences Library. Mandy leans against the building’s outer wall. “At party, I say stuff that-”

“You didn’t mean,” Mandy supplies for her. 

Lana shakes her head. “No, I mean them. You are beautiful. I am- I can’t be dating anyone.”

“Why?” Mandy asks. “If you’re not ready to be out or because I’m bi? I’m sorry, I just- I like you a lot. And I was wondering why.”

Svetlana looks sad. Her eyes flit across Mandy’s face before she sighs and says, “I am stripper. It’s how I pay for college. Very good money. Most people I date have big problem with stripping, but I want to strip. I don’t want to stop-”

“My best friend is a go-go boy,” Mandy says quickly. “I get it. The money’s real good. I wouldn’t give up a well-paying job, either, not for anything.”

“You okay with me being stripper?” Lana asks, eyeing Mandy suspiciously.

“I’m okay with you being a stripper,” Mandy says clearly. “I’d like to watch sometime, but that’s a different conversa-”

Lana closes the distance between them very quickly. She presses their lips together sweetly and then their bodies together a little less sweetly. Mandy misses her bus, but she doesn’t really care.

**Author's Note:**

> sorry about that
> 
> yell at me on tumblr
> 
> withhishands.tumblr.com


End file.
